Coffee Cures Pain

Okay, brrr. Somewhat. At least in the shade.Blame the breeze. It'll seem like a heatwave in six months, though.

Anyway, let's go:

GEEK If you haven’t seen it, go directly to google’s main page and check out today’s doodle. Click on the doors to the bridge. Fight the Gorn. You'll know what works best.

If you know what that means, you’re in for a treat. Especially the condition of the redshirt at the end. It’s meant to celebrate the 46th anniversary of Star Trek’s premiere, which happened on Sept. 8th, 1966. I saw it. Very young. Was terrified. But I was there from the start. Was crushed when it cancelled; if I could go back in time and reassure myself: don’t worry, kid. It’ll come back. About a dozen movies and several hundred new episodes. Yes, several hundred. What else do we have in the future? Communicators, just like in Star Trek. You’ll like it there.

Norway-based researchers—Vegard Strøm, Cecilie Røe and Stein Knardahl of Norway’s National Institute of Occupational Health and Oslo University Hospital—have found that coffee reduces physical pain during computer work.

The tasks were known to cause pain in the neck, shoulders, forearms and wrists.

19 of the volunteers who drank coffee reported a lower intensity of pain compared to other 29 who abstained from the drink.

However, the findings can’t be confirmed because of other-related and unknown factors.

Gosh, that’s helpful. Reminds me that I’m almost out of coffee. Bought some stuff on sale; it’s pretty good, but I’d expect nothing less: it’s RESERVE BLEND. Never quite understood the concept of special reserve, whether it’s bourbon or coffee or jelly beans or whatever. Why were they holding it back? Was this the good stuff they only served the Board of Directors, or sold to the White House for the times when Kings dropped in? What sort of decision-making went into releasing the RESERVE to the general public? You can imagine bitter debates behind the scenes, some arguing that the people’s tastes are too banal to appreciate the RESERVE, others insisting that it was wrong to hold it back.

Or perhaps it’s a sign that they’re out of the regular stuff, and have to dip into the stuff they’ve saved. Or perhaps it’s marketing. I know, I know, but it’s possible.

ART Another day, another batch of "reimagined" movie posters.This fellow is redoing movie posters in a “retro” style. The character design, but not the style of the poster themselves; nothing looked like this is “retro” times. (The term is used to describe the period between 1920 and 1999.) They’re fun, but they’re not instantly recognizable. For example:

The Younger gang tries to rob the First National Bank in Northfield. Bookkeeper Joseph Lee Heywood delays the robbery by refusing to open the vault and pays with his life. A gunfight in the streets of Northfield follows; two of the robbers die and two more are wounded in the fight.

A posse catches up with the gang at Madelia a few days later, killing one additional member and capturing all three of the infamous Younger brothers, Cole, Bob, and Jim, who would be sentenced to life in prison. Two of the gang members escape. As the Younger brothers often worked with Frank and Jesse James, it was assumed that they took part in this crime, but their guilt has never been proven.

That was in 1876. In 1885, something happier:

The Minnesota State Fair opens for the first time on its present grounds in St. Paul. The Twin Cities had battled about which one would host the fair, but Ramsey County's donation of two hundred acres for a permanent fairgrounds clinched St. Paul's victory. The site had been the Ramsey County poor farm.